Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-19

him all there WAS, and the poor victims
obvious terror and CHASTITY apprehension
were more convincing than any words
that he was telling the truth. The man
finally departed, therefore, after assuring
Werkle that his life depended on his
having given the numbers correctly, and
directing the two guards wnOm he left in
the room TO kill the whole family st the
slightest symptom Of any attemp5 to
make noise The two guards,
still masked, gagged the iani-
tor and haudkuffed him and then
waited grimly, with their reyolvers in
their hands, for what seemed to the VIC
tins an unfortunately long time. In fact,
il was about two hours AID hslf, but
during that period Werkle, in addition to
his physical discomfort, which was no.
small, and the siIht of the black masks
end the cleaning rcvolvers, wnicn was
not raassuring, wss given the choice Of
but two subjects of thought; the first
beiag that he might suffer a violent
death at eny moment, and the other thst,
in case he escaped, the bank which it was
his duty to guard would have been rifed
end he himself would be among the first
to be suspected Of colLGsi n.
at length, however, the long suspense,
which was perhaps the worst thing to
endure OF al, came to en- end, and the
guards withdrew, with PARTING caution
Of very blood-curdling kind. The
Werkle family were once more left to
themselves. For several minutes they
were afraid to stir, lest the terrible
masked gang should return; but finally
the janitor succeeded in getting the
sitting gag out Of his mouth, and then,
with the msnacles still on his wrists, he
made his way down stairs AMI round to
his friend KOhlman's shop, as we have
already seen.
Such was Werkle's story, as listened 20
by Kohlmen and the unknown gentleman,
VINO nad dropped in by accident. Ii was
not, in itself, an altogether probable tale,
and the gentlemsn's cOun{enance, when
il had been told, seemed to express as
much. As for HOFFMAN, he was too much
bewildered to have any opinion at all ;
and he accepted the gentlema8's sugges-
ton that the police had better be sent for
with alacrity. It was desirable to make
it clear that, at all events, t1e barber had
nothing to do with the affair or Was in
any way concerned to shield the janitor
Ii IS all very well to be friendly with g
maH, bat when your friend falls under
any sort of Suspicion the proper thing to
go is 10 leave him to mis- fate Until the
suspicion is removed.
Animated by these pruden. sentiments,
Mr.. kohimsn left his shop and ran up
the steps, and IL the first place, cast Il
ClsnCe through the bank window 10 the
direction OF the vault. It's massive doors
Were open, and there were OminOuS
signs OF disorder within. This discovery
stimulated him TO immediate action; and
catching sight of q policeman on the cor
ner of the street opposite, ne SigDalled 20
him with vigorous gestures to sppronCh.
The policeman came, but when KohlmaG
returned with him 10 the shop Werkle
WAS there alone. The unknown gentle
man With the amethyst ring AMI the
watch chain had apparently got tired Of
waiting TO be shaved and had taken his
departure.
On hearing Werkle's story, and seeing
the condition of The bank, the policeman
took the jsnitor into custody, end sent
to the police station, which
was not far off. By tais time crowd
day appearance Of the locality underwent
q complete transformation. Everybody
was asking questions, which nobody was
able to answer. The italian peanut ven
dor WIGS doing a roaring trade, and all
was excitement and expectation. Pres
emily, however, the measured treai of
men marching in step was heard drawing
near, and the tsli figures of half dozen
officers were seen coming down Blocker
street. The crowd gave back, but did
they remained trying to look
over one enother's heads to see what
would happen next.
The officer in charge of the police lis
posed some Of his men outside the bans,
10 Keep of persons whose curiosity was
too pressing; and sent others, in plain
clotnes, amongst the crowd, to collect
whstever evidence or information might
be floating ABOUT.
He then entered the bank with one
companion, svailing himself OF the side
door on Bleecker street, which the burg
lars had left open. A glance was suti-
Gent to show that the worst that could
be feared had happened. The vault had
been opened, evidently by proper
of the combination
lock. The space within the vsult
was aoout eight feet square, and con-
tsined g ssie on either side, and c third
az back. Two OF these had been forced
and az atremp: made on the third, but
this, for some reason, had been given up.
however, enough had been
taken from the other two safes TO repay
the burglars amply for their labor. But
though they hGd taken much, they had
left little or nothing TO indicate who they
were. They had been there ard they
had gone away again. So much was GER
tain and no more than so much. This, st
al events, was the view of the matter
taken by the police after 9 cursory in.
spection of the ground; and the reports
Of the oticers in plain clothes who had
been sent to collect news amongst the
crowd, was to the effect that no supicious
characters had been seen about the place